Hughes hits late hat-trick as Bees go top

DANNY HUGHES hit a sensational hat-trick as Bees trounced their local rivals last night to go top of both the British National League and Inter-League tables.

The 22-year-old British forward, who normally receives only limited ice time on Bees' developmental fourth line, came off the bench in the closing stages of the last period and sent the crowd wild with three goals in the last three minutes of the match.

It capped a sensational night for player-coach Mike Ellis' side, who showed gritty determination allied to a lot of skill.

Despite taking a 2-0 first period lead there was little to suggest that Bees were about to thrash a Basingstoke team, who play in the supposedly superior Elite League.

The excellent Matus Petricko provided the passes for both Peter Campbell's opening goals at 4.39 and 11.26.

But a soft shot from Doug Shepherd, while Bees' Ross McDougall was sitting a penalty, got Basingstoke off the mark a little more than five minutes after the restart.

Lukas Smital toyed with Basingstoke. passing the puck back and forth with Mike Rees, before finding Martin Masa at the far post, then in the penultimate minute of the period Petricko turned the puck in, prompting a bust-up with a frustrated Jeff Ewasko.

Basingstoke coach Mark Bernard, a former Bees goalie, reacted by replacing netminder Ron Vogel with Dean Skinns for the final session. But his back-up goalie suffered a six-goal blitz as Bees went on the rampage.

A soft goal by Basingstoke's Jeff Galway 67 seconds after the restart stung Bees into action.

Greg Owen poked home a Masa rebound, then Serge Dube fired in from left point.

When Steve Ellis reduced the deficit to 6-3 at 55.07, Basingstoke pulled Skinns for an extra skater in a desperate attempt to spark a real fightback.

But the gamble backfired as Bees' Mark Richardson set up Hughes for an empty net goal at 57.18.

Within 25 seconds Hughes had added his second, breaking out one-on-one before showing great composure to beat Skinns. His hat-trick goal, though, after Rees had made it 9-3, was the pick of the bunch.

With just 49 seconds of the game left, Hughes tapped the puck one side of Basingstoke's Lewis Buckman, skated round the other, then let fly from outside the blue line to beat a shell-shocked Skinns.

The crowd, which will surely grow in numbers with more performances like this, went wild, while Hughes was mobbed by his team-mates on the buzzer before collecting Bees' man-of-the-match award.

Bees will now be looking to complete a quick derby double when the sides meet again at Basingstoke tomorrow.

And English Premier League Milton Keynes will surely be no match for Bees on this form in Sunday's Winter Cup game at the John Nike Complex.